Agriculture

EU Member States today supported a new five-year licence for the controversial weed-killer glyphosate, missing the opportunity to ban it completely and make European food and farming safer and more sustainable. [1]

EU Member States today failed to agree on the renewal of the herbicide Glyphosate, after a proposal from the European Commission to extend its license for five years. Its current license for use in the EU runs out on December 15.

New research published today shows the dramatic impacts of the global food system being rapidly monopolised by ever-fewer, ever-larger corporations at every stage of the food chain. This alarming trend poses risks to consumer choice, jobs and working conditions and food production in the future, warn the authors of the Agrifood Atlas.

“Agroecology is a paradigm and perception shift”

This October, scholars and students from across Europe came together for the first time to discuss how to connect the science, movement and practice of agroecology. Peasants, urban people, and representatives of social movements and NGOs were invited to participate and share their perspectives. Here we share our first impressions.

The proposed merger between Bayer and Monsanto should be blocked under EU competition law, according to a major new study from University College London released on world food day. [1]

The authors of the report claim that the European Commission should be obliged to block the merger – which is currently under an in-depth investigation from the European Commission – even on a narrow reading of EU competition law.

The analysis concludes that the "Baysanto" merger should be blocked as:

Commenting on today’s State of the European Union speech by European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, Leida Rijnhout from Friends of the Earth Europe said:

“We need a fundamental rethink of the kind of Europe we want – in some areas President Juncker seems to recognise this, but in others it is very much business as usual. It remains to be seen whether his proposals will go far enough to really bridge the gap between the EU its citizens.

South America is paying the price for Europe's hungry factory farms – with vast monocultures of pesticide-soaked, GM soy where forests used to be. But a new EU proposal aims to boost the amount of soy grown in Europe to ease the pressure on countries in the Global South. At the same time, it must be careful to avoid repeating the problem in Europe, argues Stanka Becheva.

Reacting to the official notification by Bayer to the European Commission of their planned acquisition of Monsanto, Adrian Bebb, food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said:

"This merger would be a marriage made in hell. Bayer and Monsanto already wield enormous power over our food and farming system, and their joining forces would be bad news for citizens, farmers and the environment.

Intended to influence the debate on the future direction of Europe, this alternative vision is endorsed by organisations representing a multitude of public interest issues, including labour rights, culture, development, environment, health, women's rights, youth, and anti-discrimination groups.